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Nutrition app to 'separate fat from fiction'

Lucy Rickard

Fat or fiction? The Traffic Light Food Tracker app was released today.

A new smartphone application that clearly identifies the nutritional content of packaged foods will be launched today by the Obesity Policy Coalition.

The launch follows extensive research by the Coalition that revealed 87 per cent of Australian grocery shoppers wanted clearer nutrition labelling their food.

The Traffic Light Food Tracker app will use a traffic light system to demonstrate the nutrition in foods with red being high, amber medium and green as low.

It will assess the amounts of sodium, sugars, total fat and saturated fat per 100 grams in packaged foods.

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Jane Martin, senior policy adviser at the Coalition said consumers were sick of confusing and potentially misleading nutrition claims, like 'fat-free' and 'low fat'.

"Our research shows consumers want to know how much salt, sugar, saturated fat and total fat is in the products they buy," she said.

"Traffic light labels provide this information at a glance, and help shoppers sort fat from fiction."

The app is available for both iPhone and Android smartphones from today. It allows the user to input the values for total fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium and gives an immediate rating of red, amber or green.

The launch of the app coincides with the Coalition's advocacy campaign to make traffic light labelling mandatory on all packaged food products sold in Australia.

Former federal health minister Neal Blewett led an independent review of food-labelling law and policy last year, recommending that the traffic light labelling system be implemented on front of packaged foods.

But the system has drawn criticism from producers, who argue that the labels assess a 100 gram serving, which is generally far greater than a recommended serving size.

Mr Blewett has previously said that the traffic light labelling system would allow people to make quick, informed decisions about the healthiness of food regardless of literacy and numeracy skills.

The Obesity Policy Coalition is a group of leading public health agencies including Diabetes Australia Victoria and the Cancer Council Victoria.